Surging Paul stays on message

DUBUQUE, Iowa — His crowds have swelled and polls now place him at the front of the pack in Iowa, but Texas Rep. Ron Paul hasn’t deviated from the doctrine he’s been preaching for three decades.

In Iowa, it might be a message whose time has come.

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“I don’t think the problems are all that complicated,” Paul told an audience of more than 100 in Maquoketa on Thursday — double the crowd that greeted Rick Perry in town two days earlier. “I think we’ve gotten into the mess mainly because we’ve had too many people in Washington that really didn’t read or didn’t care about our Constitution. If we obey the Constitution, I think we could solve most of our problems.”

While other campaigns tinker with messaging following a polling surge, Paul has made no such recalibration.

His stump speech, which clocks in at about 40 minutes, is the same liberty-loving, Fed-bashing, anti-interventionist riff that grew his national following four years ago.

But now, it’s receiving fresh scrutiny following several public polls that show him within striking distance of capturing Republicans’ first nominating contest — an outcome that would send shock waves through the party.

Standing before more than 150 inside an event center along the Mississippi River here, Paul said he’s “very encouraged” by the reception he’s getting across the country.

There are no attempts at pandering to Iowa, no slaps at his GOP rivals or even President Barack Obama. The lack of partisanship in Paul’s speeches might help explain the broad and diverse coalition he’s cobbling together here.

John McCarthy, 23, quizzed Paul about his views on health care. McCarthy, an independent, is temporarily registering as a Republican to caucus for the libertarian.

An Obama supporter in 2008, McCarthy said he’s been disillusioned by the president’s first term — particularly by the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act.

“I believe that Gov. [Terry] Branstad said the Republican Party had seen a lot of growth in voter registration in Republicans as of late, and I think that’s primarily people coming from independents and Democrats to register as Republicans to vote for Dr. Paul,” he said. “He’s honest, he’s consistent, he’s principled and we don’t feel like the others can bring that to the table.”